Harish Hande: Powering Change, One Solar Panel at a Time

While tech billionaires capture global headlines, it's visionaries like Harish Hande who are quietly revolutionizing life for millions at the grassroots level. As the brilliant mind behind SELCO India, Hande has proven that sustainable energy isn't just an environmental choice—it's a powerful tool for social justice and economic empowerment.

Harish Hande's journey from IIT Kharagpur and the University of Massachusetts to the dusty villages of Karnataka represents a road less traveled by highly educated professionals. After witnessing solar power's impact in the Dominican Republic during his doctoral research, Hande made a pivotal decision: to bring this technology to India's underserved communities.

What sets Harish Hande apart isn't just his technical expertise, but his fundamental belief that technology must be accessible, affordable, and culturally relevant to create meaningful change. Since co-founding SELCO in 1995, he's challenged the conventional wisdom that poor communities can't afford sustainable solutions.

The genius of Harish Hande's approach lies in recognizing that the energy poverty challenge wasn't primarily technical—it was financial. By developing pioneering partnerships with rural banks and microfinance institutions, SELCO created payment systems aligned with local income patterns, making solar power attainable for even the most economically marginalized families.

Today, with over 600,000 solar installations across India, Hande's work has enabled countless entrepreneurs to extend their working hours, students to study after dark, and health clinics to operate reliably—all while reducing dependence on polluting kerosene.

Though recognized with prestigious accolades like the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Harish Hande measures success differently. Through SELCO Foundation, he's building a comprehensive ecosystem for social entrepreneurship—proving that serving the poor can be both sustainable and scalable.

Harish Hande's legacy reminds us that true innovation isn't just about breakthrough technology, but about reimagining access, opportunity, and dignity for all. In a world searching for authentic models of inclusive development, his journey offers both inspiration and practical blueprint.